If you've ever been to a small town, where everyone knows everyone and each house is full of old names and ancient history, this book should feel familiar. It's the story of a place, from its foundation to current day. Each chapter tells a different part of local history, and family names and traits flow …
Tag: mystery
Pandora’s Star by Peter F Hamilton
This one was recommended to me by an old friend, and it ended up on my must-read list for the year. It's the first book in a huge epic sci-fi saga called The Commonwealth Saga, and oh my God, it's about a billion pages long, and has a huge list of characters. The book is …
The Outlaw Album by Daniel Woodrell
A thin volume of short stories by the author of Winter's Bone, the film of which launched Jennifer Lawrence's career. The book is incredibly evocative of different lives lived on the fringe of society, each story focusing on a person who transgresses, or lives with someone who transgresses the law. Most of the stories are …
The English Ghost by Peter Ackroyd
If I see a Peter Ackroyd book, I'll generally pick it up. This historian (I've recently heard that he's a novelist too) has a nice, anecdotal but informative writing style, and researches his books thoroughly. They are often very long, so when this one arrived, I was surprised that it's about the length of a …
Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
Written way back in 1912 for children or young adults, by Jean Webster, a woman who believed in women's rights and other socially progressive issues, this book has been made into films and stage plays. And for some reason, I had never read it. Which is crazy, because as a kid I was a reader, …
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
A fictionalised account of the real life murder of Elizabeth Short in LA in the late 1940's, James Ellroy explores the unsolved case and LA's seedy underbelly in the Golden Age of Cinema. You might recognise James Ellroy's name from his best seller LA Confidential, (which was made into a really good film which I …
Lost Property: the weirdest things left behind on London’s public transport.
Every now and then when I go past Baker Street in London, I stop to take a look in the window of the TFL Lost Property office. It's one of London's odd places. You can't actually go in, but the window regularly changes displaying different things left during the years, from 80's mobile phones the …
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The Quick by Lauren Owen
Although it's well written, capturing the mood and language of it's era, this book failed to really grab me. It follows the lives of a brother and sister, James and Charlotte, who have no one in the world except each other, until time and social circumstances pull them apart. But when something supernatural happens that …
The All Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
I think I've read all of Fannie Flagg's books, and loved every one. The most famous is perhaps Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe, which was made into an excellent film. In fact, the author is an actress herself! What I love about her books is that they're about the simple things in life, …
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What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
There's nothing quite like getting a book in the post from an old friend, with a handwritten note, especially when you're like me, and live on the other side of the world. I am also very lucky to have friends who have excellent taste in books! This book is about Alice, a 29 year old …
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